Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fruits

Should I be taking vitamins to make up for my fruit allergies?

stleric — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:15:15 -0800

I'm allergic to most fruits. Should I be taking some sort of multivitamin? I am allergic to varying degrees to a variety of delicious and nutritious foodstuffs. I'm most allergic to bananas, kiwis, mangoes, and avocados (not to a hospitalization/EpiPen extent, but I usually would stop eating only a few bites into any of the above), and am somewhat more mildly allergic to apples, oranges, berries, grapes, as well as carrots and a few varieties of nuts. I can eat probably about half of an apple or orange before the throat swelling/tingling/itchiness really starts to get to me, but I usually just don't eat said fruits so that I can avoid the allergic reactions altogether.

I don't think that it's due to pesticides, since I usually wash fruits fairly thoroughly. It seems like cooked fruits either don't give me allergic reactions or diminish the reactions, but it's not always convenient for me to be cooking everything.

If eating raw fruit is usually out of the picture, is there some sort of vitamin or multi-vitamin that I should be taking to pick up the slack in getting the right vitamins and minerals in my diet? If so, is there anything in specific or any vitamins and minerals that I should be looking for to replace what I would have been getting from fruit (especially the bananas, mangoes, etc.)? Should I just be eating a lot of processed pre-cooked fruit products and crossing my fingers that I don't get a reaction?

Thanks, everyone!

What kind of fruit tree/fruit is this?

Charlie Lesoine — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:14:42 -0800

What kind of fruit tree/fruit is this? The fruit Looks like a miniature plum with dark red/brown skin only less shiny than most plums. It was smaller than a cherry. It tasted like a white grape and the flesh inside was almost as green as kiwi flesh. It had a pit almost identical to a Cherry pit. Found on a tree in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles. Sorry I have no picture. I don't exactly remember the tree...it was about 15 meters high, fruits grew one at time (not in bunches).

Please help me learn to eat right!

dancestoblue — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:25:09 -0800

Food Question(s) -- Avocados / Pinto Beans / Brown Rice / Bananas / Kumquats / Mangoes / Olive Oil / Balsamic Vinegar / Eggs w/r/t organic or not, etc and etc I went to my doctor, he found potatoes and carrots mashed into my hair, he found some beans in my dang nose, he found corn in my ears, etc and etc. He stopped, looked at me, pronounced: "You're not eating right."

Anyways, I've been doing this whole Ashtanga deal and it's changed my life in any number of ways, one of the most notable being my diet IE I cannot eat garbage any more, if/when I DO eat garbage I suffer on the mat the next day, big time. Plus I don't WANT to eat garbage anymore - ice cream, candy bars, fried foods, etc and etc - whatever it was that I was feeding with that stuff is now being fed on the mat, which is actually sortof a miracle, if you were to ask me. Which of course you did not, but still.

So I'm buying all these good foods and eating them, peasant food essentially, rice and beans etc and etc, organic spinach and kale and carrots etc and etc, good guy eggs from chickens that actually have a life, blah blah blah. In no particular order, here are the questions about these foods that I have for you all:

Pinto beans and brown rice: I pay extra -- considerably extra -- to buy organic, mostly from Whole Foods (Whole Paychecks). I'm assuming that this is money well spent, as neither beans nor rice (ESP rice) have much protection against the garbage that farmers spray on them. Question 1: Is this money well spent?

Bananas and Avocados and Mangoes -- I do not buy these organic, as they have big-time husks, I've read that the gunk that's sprayed upon fruits/vegetables that have husks gets caught up in the husk and doesn't make it into my guts. (I do wash the heck out of the mangoes before cutting them open and eating the meat.) Question 2: Is this correct, do the toxins get caught in the husks of these fruits?

Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar -- Because these products come from olives and grapes, neither of which has much of a husk, I spend the extra bread -- which is considerable -- to buy these items organic. I eat a lot of olive oil and a lot of balsamic vinegar in salads and just anywhere else, love that sweet tang of balsamic vinegar in lots of foods. Question 3: Is this money well spent?

My condo complex have four kumquat trees full of ripe kumquats right now, they are sweet as can be, really good, one of them right next to where I often practice yoga, down on the river, great fun, eat and practice. But fact is that I do not know much about these little dudes, not having been raised where they grow. Question 4: Is it okay to eat the skin of kumquats? I pretty much chew all the fruit out of them, spit the seed and skins into the river -- am I losing vitamins and whatnot? Will I die or some such if I do eat the skins? Question 4a: Also -- mangoes; I am not supposed to eat the skin off these dudes either, correct? (I don't eat them, but I'm wondering...)

The kumquat trees are full to overflowing just now, I bet that using my ladder I could/can get five ten gallon buckets of fresh fruit off these trees, easy. Question 5: Can I put these up without them losing their nutritional value IE take the seeds out of them and freeze them? (Of course if the skins cannot be eaten there is no way that this is feasible.)

And the mangoes usually only come in twice a year, they're very inexpensive just now, and quite easy to get the husk off, so essentially the same question as prior except about mangoes this time. Question 6: Can mango fruit be frozen?

Huge sale on avocados this week, avocados bigger than baseballs for $0.90. Question 7: Can these be frozen well, or even refrigerated to keep them a while?

I am often deep hungry from this whole yoga thing, one of the things that works to stave that hunger is eggs, of which I eat just one heck of a lot of. 8 to 12 a day, some days 16. (I usually boil them and make an egg salad, olive oil balsamic vinegar onions slivered carrots etc and etc. Yeah yeah, I know, sounds like I'm a hog gut but I'm just flat hungry is all; YOU try a serious Ashtanga practice and then tell me if YOU'RE hungry. Hint: You will be.) If I eat 8 eggs I eat only 2 yolks, if 12 only 3 yolks; throwing the yolks away so as to not blow my heart out of my chest with cholesterol. Question 8: Am I OD'ing on too much egg protein here? (I'm mostly not eating meat, like at all, or fish, eating some walnuts and/or pecans for protein.) Also: Is three or five egg yolks a day too much bad-guy fat?

Last. I put some pinto beans into a pot of water on Saturday to soak prior to cooking, the pot has set on the stove top, I basically forgot it had anything in it, nice shiny covered pot sitting on the stove is all. I remembered about an hour ago, and now some of the dang beans are even sprouting, the water looks a tad murky, I don't want to die from eating grungy, scungy beans. Question 8: Can I cook and eat these gems or do I toss them? I'm assuming that I'd have to rinse them of course...

Long list there of questions there; I wish I knew how to make bullet points or numbered lists or what-have-you, but I don't -- sorry...

And now I've finished this list o' questions and my coffee and a dang mango (and that sucker was sweet -- man!) and headed now to the river to suffer creatively (ie practice Ashtanga) and eat a few kumquats.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Peace.

Strange Tree. What is it?

kryptos — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:53:42 -0800

I was at the Bogor Daily Photo blog earlier today and saw a picture of a 'Strange Tree' that one of the site's contributors, Alaya, posted with the words " found the tree with strange fruit on the road near botanical garden. anyone know what kind of tree is it? ". I waited the whole day but no answer was forthcoming . I thought it looks like a fruit-bearing parasitic plant that i might have seen somewhere before.The photo piqued my curiosity so I thought I will ask the Mefites. I am sure Alaya will be ever so thankful too. :)

My sliced apples are rusting!

TheyCallItPeace — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:00:49 -0800

How do Subway/McDonald's keep apple slices from oxidizing? I noticed that a few fast food places have, at one point or another, sold apple slices in little plastic bags. However, when I slice an apple up and don't eat it immediately, the fruit's flesh oxidizes quite quickly (a matter of minutes).

How can one avoid this oxidization? Are these fast food joints spraying the fruits with nasty chemicals?

Preparing for the Worst

netbros — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:43:30 -0800

What vegetables, fruits, fish and animals would be recommended for a self-sufficient survival farm? Whether it be climate change, energy shortage, economic collapse, or act of nature; there are many plausible reasons these days to consider alternatives to the western way of living. Perhaps people living in the communes of the 1960-70s were thinking ahead.

If you had a small, 10-20 acre family farm or slightly larger community property what vegetables would you plant, what fruit trees would you cultivate, what fish would you stock in the pond, and what farm animals would you raise to make your environment as self-sufficient as possible for your family and/or community in the face of a calamitous future? What considerations are required to care for all of this?

Living off the fat o' the land

edjusted — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:57:31 -0800

We've got a tiny patch of dirt in our back yard and want to grow edible stuff. We're not that serious, just mostly goofing off. What could we grow out there using existing foodstuffs? By that, I mean, we want to grow green onions, for example. Can we just grab a few green onions from the fridge, cut off the bottom, and plant those? Are there any other simple-to-grow foodstuffs we should consider? We're in Southern California, but the patch of dirt only gets direct sunlight maybe 1-2 hours a day.

Hyper-realistic fruits and veggies?

B-squared — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:10:09 -0800

I am looking for hyper-realistic photographs, paintings or prints of fruits and vegetables. I'm looking for vibrant colors; even high gloss would be great. Can you point me toward the Chuck Close of produce?

Strangely-colored fruits and veggies

oflinkey — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 21:08:50 -0800

What fruits and vegetables do you know of that come in "odd" colors? I know that parsnips look rather like white carrots. I have seen and eaten purple sweet potatoes, but I have to admit the purple and the white peppers were new to me. And then the black radish!
What other fruits and vegetables (or any other fresh foodstuffs, really) come in a "traditional" color and a "non-traditional" color(s)?

Which fruits or vegetables keep the longest?

casarkos — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 10:39:28 -0800

What kinds of fruit/vegetables have you found that keep longest? For more perishable stuff, are there any methods (short of freezing) for extending shelf life?

What's a good picnic recipe using APPLES?

DevilsAdvocate — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 11:48:13 -0800

Today's theme ingredient is...APPLES! What apple-based dessert recipe would you recommend for a picnic? 1) I don't care much for the very tart varieties of apple (e.g., Granny Smith), so I prefer a recipe that uses, or at least works with, the less tart varieties. 2) There will be several hours between baking and serving, so it should be servable at room temperature. 3) I'm reasonably skilled in the kitchen; you need not shy away from more difficult recipes.

need alphonso mangoes in the US

Gyan — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 18:19:11 -0800

A desperate question... where can I order alphonso mangoes online/phone for delivery within the US?